September 2015

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 sep 2015

India's Central Statistics Office (CSO) recently revised the methodology to calculate the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The new growth numbers brought a bit of surprise, both in the local as well as the global economic circles, as they made India the fastest growing economy in the world, beating China to take the top spot. According to recent WSJ survey of US economists, China's GDP figures are often seen with skepticism. But when India Real Time asked about India's official GDP numbers to a group of international economists, they seem generally comfortable with its economic direction, even though they haven't fully figured out the official data. Following are the views of some global economists - (1) Shaily Mittal of MNI Indicators (London): 'Although reliability of data can be questioned to some extent, there is no denying the fact that India seems to be growing at a much healthier pace. Overall we remain positive on India.' (2) Chua Han Teng of BMI Research (Singapore): 'The repeated surprises under the new GDP series for the past two quarters and the subsequent revisions to previous data have given rise to more questions than answers regarding India's economy.' (3) Jeremy Schwartz of WisdomTree (New York): 'Overall there has been a big boost in investor attitudes towards India. Recent changes have helped steer India in the right direction.' (4) Kilbinder Dosanjh of Eurasia Group (London): 'Brazil, Russia and South Africa are virtually in recession. If you look at the components within BRICS, India is actually doing very well regardless of the methodology.' (5) Vishnu Varathan of Mizuho Bank (Singapore): 'GDP numbers probably leave unanswered questions about mis-stated growth. But the broader macro-stability objectives of the RBI dilute the direct risks.' Read on...

The Wall Street Journal: What Do International Economists Really Think of India's Rosy GDP Readings?
Author: Anant Vijay Kala

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 sep 2015

Indian IT firms, in order to attract high-end digital contracts that are design and creative skills intensive, are building dedicated design practices, acquiring design firms, modifying their hiring practices to accomodate design and creative talent, and mandating internal marketing design teams to work with clients. Hiring artists and designers seems to be the new trend in the IT industry. According to Paul Nanneti of Capgemini Group, 'More digital work could move to India, but there is a gap in the design capabilities. That is still being done mostly onshore. So we are building out a design and user capability practice in India.' Tata Consultancy Services has been developing its design practice for last 5 years. Satya Ramaswamy of TCS Digital Enterprise says, 'There are some very good artists and designers who don't have bachelor's degrees. So we have to create exceptions in our hiring policies to be able to bring them on board. Even managing artistic and design people is different.' Wipro recently acquired a Danish design firm Designit. According to Rajan Kohli of Wipro Digital, 'While we had been trying to hire senior designers in the market, it became clear to us that we needed a proven design platform, a heritage and brand in design, to be able to attract the best people to Wipro.' Read on...

The Economic Times: Lack of design and creative skills could shut out Indian IT from lucrative digital contracts
Author: Jochelle Mendonca

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 15 sep 2015

Architects often espouse some philosophical concepts while designing and creating their projects apart from imbibing what their clients want. Architect Mona Doctor Pingel of Studio Naqshbandi in Auroville (Tamil Nadu, India), considers building as not merely a functional structure but a space that effectively addresses the five senses. She is influenced by writer-philosopher-artist Hugo Kukelhaus who considered various aspects of modern architecture as 'inhuman'. Ms. Pingel focuses on creating healthy living and work spaces. She thoroughly studies the impact of built environment on human health before embarking on projects. According to her, 'Starting from location and climate to the materials selected, and the interiors, all add up to prevent the sick building syndrome. A building should bring into perspective all the five senses, thereby giving a three-dimensional angle to the structure. Like the sight of greenery, sound of water, feel of natural stone under the feet, the smell of trees, flowers, and fresh mud, the taste of a charming yet sensitive design, all the five senses need to be addressed by a building.' She uses natural materials in her projects like stone, terracotta blocks, bricks alongwith seamlessly blending greenery into the environment. She believes that architects have to be envoronmentally responsible in their designs and advocates practices of resource efficiency and recycling. She says, 'The scale in which cities are growing is not sustainable. Villages need revival through awareness, education and commitment brought into design.' Read on...

The Hindu: Architecture of the senses
Author: Nandhini Sundar

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 13 sep 2015

India's startup ecosystem is bubbling with energy and enthusiasm with large venture capital investments pumped into it. This gives startups opportunity to attract the best talent with attractive compensation packages. The phenomenon is giving rise to heightened competition for talent with MNCs that have also started to offer joining bonus and stock options. The beneficiaries of this are the freshly minted campus recruits of the Tier-1 engineering colleges. According to the latest study by Zinnov, 'On campus compensation by MNCs include bonus and stock options varying between Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The average CTC (cost-to-company) offered by MNCs in Tier-1 colleges was around Rs 14.3 lakh, while startups offered Rs 16.5 lakh. The CTC includes base salaries, variable pay, joining bonus and stocks.' Sandeep Moorthy of Zinnov says, 'MNCs were paying Rs 8 to 9 lakh in 2011 as basic pay, but now the figure has gone to almost Rs 12 lakh. The fixed in-hand pay is comparable for MNCs and startups. The difference is in the value of stocks offered by startups.' According to Sumit Jain, co-founder and CEO of Commonfloor.com, 'We hired 50 from Tier-1 colleges like IITs and IIMs for these roles with compensation packages ranging between Rs 10-25 lakh, that includes ESOPs, retention bonus, equity and cash.' Aneesh Reddy, co-founder and CEO of Capillary Technologies, says 'About 10% of entry-level salary consists of stock.' Read on...

The Times of India: MNCs compete with startups for talent, match salary, offer esops
Authors: Shalina Pillai, Shilpa Phadnis

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 sep 2015

The recent press release of India's Ministry of Finance states that industrial production, Balance of Payment (BoP) and GDP numbers of Q1 of 2015-16 indicate that the economy is improving steadily and manufacturing sector is gradually emerging as leader of industrial growth. In July 2015 Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew at 4.2% as compared to 0.9% last year. Manufacturing output in first four months of 2015-16 rose by 4% as compared to 2.8% in same period of 2014. According to Shaktikanta Das, Economic Affairs Secretary of Govt. of India, 'Improvement in IIP data for July is in line with steady improvement in the economic growth...The IIP data for capital goods and manufacturing sectors are noteworthy.' Moreover, the press release also mentions the impressive growth of capital goods (10.6%) and consumer durables (11.4%) sectors. Read on...

The Economic Times: Economy improving & manufacturing sector slowly emerging leader of industrial growth - Finance Ministry
Author: NA

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 05 sep 2015

Shortage of specialized care is one of the critical challenges that India's healthcare system is currently grappling with. As affluence and awareness of Indian population increases, the demand for better specialist-monitored healthcare is expected to rise. India's specialist availability data for selected fields per 1 lakh population is - Cardiologist (5000), Dermatologist (7000), Radiologist (10000), Ophthalmologist (11000). Although US too has shortages in terms of specialists, but the number of specialists available is far better when compared to India - Cardiologist (31500), Dermatologist (10000), Radiologist (25000), Ophthalmologist (19000). So how is India going to tackle the challenge of specialist shortages? Dave Richards of Unitus Seed Fund, is optimistic about the transformative changes that mobile technologies will bring to India's healthcare landscape. He explains five main factors that need to be addressed through technological interventions - (1) Services of specialists must not only accessible, but also affordable to both urban and rural India. (2) Services must be from a trustworthy source. (3) Convenience is a major factor for consumers. (4) Providing consultation needs to be convenient for specialists. (5) Specialists need to earn money. According to him, combination of ubiquitous smartphones and high-speed data networks can create a large-scale affordable platform for delivering healthcare services. Diagnostic services is one area that can be substantially transformed through technological advancements and innovatons - Cardiac Care: Transmitting an ECG image through a smart device to on-demand cardiologist; Dermatology: 85% of skin issues can be fully diagnosed by a dermatologist with a photo taken by a smartphone; Radiology: CT scans, X-rays, ultrasounds etc can be captured by technician and then transmitted to remote radiologists; Ophthalmology: Eye screaning for diseases and refraction issues can now be done by technicians using low-cost devices, routed to ophthalmologists via mobile networks. Read on...

Forbes: The smart way of providing affordable health care
Author: Dave Richards

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Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 sep 2015

Use of technology for customer interactions, particularly for large businesses, is often seen as an automation and cost cutting exercise. And for customers it may not all be a pleasant experience. In case of small and medium businesses (SMBs), considering their limited budgets and other challenges, use of technology as a customer support tool should be a well thought out decision. It should provide them with cost savings alongwith building lasting customer relationships. Varun Shoor, founder and CEO of Kayako, provides ways in which SMBs can utilize technologies to enhance customer experience and create best value for their businesses - (1) Understand customer context: Have clarity of purpose; Evaluate context of customer inquiries; Availability of fast and easy access of information to resolve customer iquiries; Updating and sharing information with other departments (2) Deliver personal service at scale: Try to know your customer better; Understand customer's interaction points across all channels; Seek customer's needs and wants through surveys (3) Stop firefighting, start anticipating: Find ways to interact with customers even if they aren't; Use effective CRM tools; Utilize customer analytics (4) Customers want to help themselves: Provide them with self-explanatory information and tools; Give access to effective FAQs, intelligent search, tutorials and videos. Read on...

Tech.co: 4 Ways Technology Helps Build better Customer Relationships
Author: Varun Shoor

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